stiffed a waitress today - Page 3

Poor service in an establishment that charges that kind of price is completely unacceptable. It reflects poorly on the management that you had to mention the poor service not just once but twice. Any good manager would have put their best server at your table and at least comped the drinks or dessert at a minimum. I might not have used your approach, but I believe your were certainly justified in your actions.

You're being very gracious about the whole incident and are unusually respectful of the waitress who seemed to be out of her element. It should be interesting to see if she's there the next time you go there on business. It should also be interesting to see how the manager and other staff respond to you, if they make the connection (incompetent waitstaff bring affect tips if they're pooled and news of a $2.00 tip will spread quickly among the staff).

If you have the opportunity, while in Chicago go to the Frontera Grill or the more upscale Topolobampo. Both are owned by Rick Bayless, whom I had the pleasure of working for as a prep cook during my grad school days in the mid 1980's. I've never been to either, but feedback from friends has been very positive.

thanks - those are actually the places that get most recomended to me, I will have to try them sometime.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mano

Globetrotter,

You're being very gracious about the whole incident and are unusually respectful of the waitress who seemed to be out of her element. It should be interesting to see if she's there the next time you go there on business. It should also be interesting to see how the manager and other staff respond to you, if they make the connection (incompetent waitstaff bring affect tips if they're pooled and news of a $2.00 tip will spread quickly among the staff).

If you have the opportunity, while in Chicago go to the Frontera Grill or the more upscale Topolobampo. Both are owned by Rick Bayless, whom I had the pleasure of working for as a prep cook during my grad school days in the mid 1980's. I've never been to either, but feedback from friends has been very positive.

thanks - those are actually the places that get most recomended to me, I will have to try them sometime.

Not to be that guy, but I have to say they're the most spectacularly overrated restaurants in Chicago. I dined at both places at different occasions, and while the service was excellent, the food was terribly bland and boring, and the portion size was pathetic. My one time at Frontera, I ended up dropping $25 on what turned out to be a plate of 4-5 shrimp in some watery tomato based sauce on a top of a pile of shredded cabbage that was more garnish than edible vegetables. My friends ordered some taco al carbons that were decent, but tiny, and about the same quality as any of the fajita tacos I could get here in Houston at a dozen or so cheap Tex-Mex places within several blocks of my place. I forget what I had at Topalobampo, but again, I paid out the ass for a tiny and uninspired platter that would have been outdone at a third of the price by nearly any place I could go to locally at home. Absolute rip-off both times; people clearly go here because of the Bayless hype and to be seen (granted the bar at Frontera is at least nicely set up).

I've lived in Texas 10+ years, California 5, and have been to Mexico , and I can say that comparing the food they serve to any legitimate Mexican (or quasi-Mexican) style is a joke.

"What really annoys me is when, on a busy shift, you find that the plate of cheesecake has a large growth of fungus on the surface as it has been left in the fridge a few days too many! So you go back to the table that ordered the cheesecake and with as much politeness as you can possibly muster, tell that table that you are really sorry that we have run out of cheesecake, but there is a variety of other desserts on the menu.

"WHAT!!! NO CHEESECAKE??? ARE YOU STUPID OR WHAT? WHAT KIND OF F****** RESTAURANT IS THIS?!" etc. etc. For God's sake grow up; it's not the end of the world. But, you know what? The customer thinks that I am a nice, friendly, apologetic waitress when I say, "Maybe we DO have some cheesecake left"”let me go check again." And yes, the customer will get his cheesecake served with an extra dollop of cream which acts as a disguise for the holes made when scraping off the fungus!

Some 'friends' (more-so jackass acquaintances) way back in high school worked in the kitchen at a local upscale bar and grill type restaurant. Every Friday for the fish fry, they would urinate in the deep fryer for no reason. It had nothing to do with specific customers, as anyone who ordered the fish would receive the special ingredient. Pointless and dumb, in my opinion. Others who I have heard stories from, told me of co-workers who would rub their genitals on the plates of food of rude customers, or customers who sent their food back to the kitchen. This was, of course done in the company of the kitchen staff, who would get a kick out of it. Mind you, these were not two or three star restaurants, but places like Olive Garden or Red Lobster.

I have no intention of defending Rick Bayless, as I haven't seen him 20 years and have not spoken to him in almost 10. However, I can say with certainty that when I worked for him, he walked the walk.

Bayless was the head chef at a "California Cuisine" type restaurant in Orange County, CA and everything was made from scratch, including ice cream and sausage. He and his wife, Deann, a desert and pastry whiz, demanded excellent, but at the same time they were the most upbeat and pleasant people.

No doubt, Rick is not doing the cooking at either place, with two restaurants to run and all the tv shows, and various product endorsements.

His food, BTW is not the typical Mex/Tex or even the burrito/taco Mexican food most gringos associate with the cuisine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aybojs

Not to be that guy, but I have to say they're the most spectacularly overrated restaurants in Chicago. I dined at both places at different occasions, and while the service was excellent, the food was terribly bland and boring, and the portion size was pathetic. My one time at Frontera, I ended up dropping $25 on what turned out to be a plate of 4-5 shrimp in some watery tomato based sauce on a top of a pile of shredded cabbage that was more garnish than edible vegetables. My friends ordered some taco al carbons that were decent, but tiny, and about the same quality as any of the fajita tacos I could get here in Houston at a dozen or so cheap Tex-Mex places within several blocks of my place. I forget what I had at Topalobampo, but again, I paid out the ass for a tiny and uninspired platter that would have been outdone at a third of the price by nearly any place I could go to locally at home. Absolute rip-off both times; people clearly go here because of the Bayless hype and to be seen (granted the bar at Frontera is at least nicely set up).

I've lived in Texas 10+ years, California 5, and have been to Mexico , and I can say that comparing the food they serve to any legitimate Mexican (or quasi-Mexican) style is a joke.

I've never seen anyone tamper with food by adding extra ingredients (although I've heard stories), but I have definitely seen line cooks select the worst cuts of meats, aging food and the like for service to complaining customers. Also, when perfectly cooked meat is sent back because, in the customers view, it was undercooked, I have seen line cooks turn it into leather by slapping it in a frying pan and sticking it under the salamander.

I've never seen anyone tamper with food by adding extra ingredients (although I've heard stories), but I have definitely seen line cooks select the worst cuts of meats, aging food and the like for service to complaining customers. Also, when perfectly cooked meats are sent back because, in the customers view, it was undercooked, I have seen line cooks turn it into leather by slapping it in a frying pan and sticking it under the salamander.

Now I'm getting all worried... once at a good steakhouse my steak practically still had a bell around its neck and I politely asked that they warm it up a bit more. It came back perfect but I hope it wasn't spat in or something...

However, my friend always does say, if you don't get sick and you don't know about what was done to your food, then really, who cares?

I've worked a lot of food service jobs in a variety of locales, and I can personally vouch for this - food gets tampered with, "ingredients" get added, and if you don't already know what kind of things happen, you really don't want to. Not condoning it, but it happens.

And seeing your food being made doesn't mean much. A good friend of mine worked at Subway, and he messed with *all* the food when no one was looking, just to make sure he nailed anyone who was a bastard to him later. He was not overly concerned with collateral damage.

I also worked with someone (not a friend) who would mess with people's food if they were *too nice* to him. There's no accounting for the actions of lunatics. As in any other area of life, you might treat someone with perfect respect and still get shit on.

On the bright side, some of what gets added has at least nominal nutritive value.